Deanna Quinn had saved money to get through the summers, and for the inevitable rainy day. She didn’t necessarily agree with how her son chose Northridge, with little research or feedback from the adults around him, without waiting to see if other interested schools – Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara, Virginia Tech – would tender a scholarship offer.

But she also wired her only child to be his own man, to make his own decisions, to learn from them.

“I have faith in his independence and his decisions,” she said. “It’s a learning process. That’s what I tried to teach him. I knew he could make it to a higher program. I needed him to get that confidence back. I think he lost that a little bit at Northridge.”

So mother told son to transfer to the bigger stage without a scholarship and without any guarantee of playing time. Take a risk. Don’t live with regrets. She’d make it work.

She paid a good bit. His great grandmother paid some. They took out a student loan.

“It was a rocky road for me,” Deanna Quinn said. “He doesn’t know how difficult it was for me. It was a very stressful year … But I didn’t want him to have to get a job. I told him to focus on books and basketball. Those were our two Bs: books and basketball. And his great grandmother said: ‘And practice your 3s.’”

SDSU had an extra scholarship for 2013-14 and offered it to Quinn, although there may not be another for him next season now that the Aztecs have commitments from four high school prospects and four available scholarships.

“Last year, I talked to her every day,” Quinn said. “Like, really, every day. I called her and asked how she was doing. We really became closer. I’d just tell her how my day was going, and I’d tell her how much I appreciate what she was doing for me.”

Single-game tickets

A limited sale of leftover tickets for all home games except Arizona and UNLV begins Monday at 9 a.m. at GoAztecs.com, Qualcomm Stadium’s Window E or by calling (619) 283-7378. In most cases, each game available has fewer than 100 tickets, which are turnbacks from visiting team allocations.